… random observations from my journeys through a well-lived life

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What an amazing Sunday! When we left home, it was blustery with dark, low-bellied clouds smudging the horizon, but by the time we emerged from the Museum Subway station (love the artifacts!) at 11, the sun was shining and the crowds were starting to build. With all the happy pedestrians, Queen’s Park Crescent almost looked like Europe, if you ignored the white lines and parking meters. Lots of great sessions. The person who impressed me the most was Neil Pasricha, the young man who wrote, The Book of Awesome. Although he only spoke for half an hour, he shared his personal story and the life events that were the genesis of his blog, 1000 Awesome Things. Neil is delightful and thoughtful. His philosophy of…

Image via Wikipedia Don’t let that warm weather fool you – it’s only a temporary tease from Mother Nature! Did you know (according to TLC and Dairy Farmers of Canada): Archaeological surveys show that cheese was being made from the milk of cows and goats in Mesopotamia before 6000 B.C. Travelers from Asia are thought to have brought the art of cheese making to Europe, where the process was adapted and improved in European monasteries. Cheese making is mentioned several times in the Old Testament, as well as in Homer. Chances are King Tut enjoyed cheese as well. The tombs of the Egyptian Pharaohs show traces of what is believed to be cheese. The world’s largest consumers of cheese include Greece (63 pounds…

Image via WikipediaThe website for the Culinary Arts College contains a list of 77 Mouth-Watering Baking Blogs. Cakes, cookies, breads, fudge and other candies as well as general information. Yum. And of course, each blog has lists of archived material and recipes and leads to new pages. Great blog names, too – “She runs, she eats”, “Hungry and Frozen”, “Dragon’s Kitchen”, which also has some great photos of her recent trip to Portugal. Makes you hunger for travel. So pour yourself a cup of hot tea or cocoa or coffee and set aside a couple of hours for this culinary journey. And make sure you have a tissue nearby – this is definitely a slow trip through droolsville! Remember, there’s no shame in…

Image via Wikipedia This You Tube link was sent by my son who, I confess, is a long-time Sienna (Swagger Wagon) driver. Toyota has outdone themselves with creative, edgy, funny ads with ordinary people you take a liking to – and that strikes exactly the right chord. There’s a series of them and they’re all worth watching. There’s another site where you can download an MP3 and ringtones. I wish more ads were like this, then we wouldn’t have to PVR every show we like and speed through the dreck! There’s a link at the bottom of this page – check it out.

My, oh my!! This Hot Fudge Sauce recipe sounds so over the top, I can’t wait to dive into a bowl of ice cream with a dollop on top. This is an incredibly delicious, thick and rich ice cream that starts life as ganache, that sublime mix of chocolate and heavy cream, gets blended with creme anglaise, a pourable custard, and then gets churned — or not. Many of the TWDers didn’t have ice cream makers and so they used David Lebovitz’s method for making ice cream sans a machine. As I said, the ice cream is really rich and so it’s just fine on its own. But if you want to go all-out chocolate or if you’re using the ice cream in a…